"As a city, Babylon exists no more. When those energizing human forces that built & maintained the city for thousands of years were withdrawn, it soon became a deserted ruin." - George S. Clason, The Richest Man In Babylon, page 138 – first published in 1926. Although writing about Babylon, Mr. Clason describes the downfall that lies ahead for California if the state does not renounce its sanctuary state policies. John Cox, candidate for Governor of California, offers the leadership to reverse California's own slide into ruin as described hereinafter.
California runs a gubernatorial primary on June 5 & the top two vote getters move to the general election in November regardless of party affiliation, meaning that Republicans have a chance to be on the general election ballot with John Cox – shown in the above graphic in second place in the March 21 poll. The January poll showed Lt. Governor Newsom ahead 25% to 7% so it has somewhat tightened & is much improved from the December poll. Otherwise the general election for California governor would be between the former mayor of San Francisco (Newsom) versus the former mayor of Los Angeles (Villaraigosa) – both Democrats.
Readers of this blog first learned of John Cox in January 2007 when Al Stern, Vice President of the Sun City Hilton Head FairTax Club, reported in the Island Packet that Mr. Cox was the first presidential candidate to visit Beaufort County, SC – a regular hotbed of presidential candidates every four years. Mr. Cox had been the guest of the aforementioned FairTax Club earlier that month & as Mr. Stern reported his "impassioned support of the FairTax" was very impressive.
In 2007 Mr. Cox was an Illinois businessman & many of the readers of this blog, after looking @ his positions on the issues, thought we were more in agreement with him than any of the other candidates @ the time, & accordingly tried to get him in the June 5 New Hampshire presidential primary debate – which he had been excluded from for more reasons than one – like he had little or nothing to do with the establishment positions of the two major political parties & he was simply for America.
John Cox is first & foremost a successful businessman & CPA who built his own business from scratch to a $200 million company with approximately 100 employees – just about my most desirable qualification & first requirement to be able to run for President.
During his business career Mr. Cox made time to serve on Jack Kemp's national steering committee & as Newt Gingrich's California Finance Chair. He is endorsed by the California Pro-Life Council.
Mr. Cox strongly opposes California's "Sanctuary State" policies & laws, such as Senate Bill 54, that mandates & expands protections for undocumented immigrants including actually prohibiting state & local police agencies from notifying U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials when illegal immigrants in their custody, who may be subject to deportation, are about to be released.
Thirty-two year old Kate Steinle was killed on July 1, 2015 in the arms of her father by a bullet shot from a gun by Jose Ines Garcia Zarate, a criminal & illegal alien who had been deported from the U.S. five times, & was again released from custody instead of being turned over to ICE before Kate's death @ his hands. Zarate has since been acquitted both of murder & involuntary manslaughter charges after his attorney successfully convinced a San Francisco jury that the shooting was accidental & the bullet ricocheted off the ground & traveled 80 feet before killing Kate. This of course overlooked the fact that Zarate should not have been in the country in the first place & that if he wasn't Kate would still be alive today.
Current California Governor Jerry Brown has gone even further than just not cooperating - by choosing to not have his state live under federal law & has instructed California's counties, cities, & businesses to follow suit or face state criminal charges. That's right California will fine businesses &/or imprison people who cooperate with federal immigration law.
But so far a rapidly growing list of a combination of 19 cities & counties have started to resist or fight back, including Los Alamitos, Yorba Linda, Buena Park, Huntington Beach, Mission Viejo, Fountain Valley, New Port Beach & most recently San Diego County – the second largest county in California - by planning to file a law suit against California challenging the legality of state mandates that expand protections of illegal aliens. And the Orange County Board Of Supervisors voted to join a Trump administration lawsuit that contends that the California laws obstruct federal immigration laws & violate the Constitution's Supremacy Clause (Article VI, Clause 2) – a conflict-of-laws rule specifying that certain national acts take priority over any state acts that conflict with national law once federal power has been validly exercised.
In addition, Orange County Sheriff Sandra Hutchens intends to publicly post online the release dates of jail inmates — including those in the country illegally.
Of course John Cox is totally behind the cities' & counties' resistance & if elected Governor will work to reverse all of Jerry Brown's destructive work in the Golden State.
California has the highest marginal state income tax rate (13.3%) in the country, the highest state sales tax rate (7.25% but varies by district with 9.5% in LA), sky-high gasoline taxes including a recently passed $52 billion gas tax increase, car registration fees, traffic fines, high utility rates, & high crime rates & large homeless encampments in many areas. The state ranks dead last in friendliness to business, has the highest poverty rate in the country, a growing unfunded public pension liability that has reached a critical stage, & a huge public retiree healthcare liability that has not even begun to be funded – all of which hurts the middle class & that is why they are finally fighting back as described above – or leaving California.
People have talked about the one way U-Haul contracts going form California to Texas for years – this may be an exaggeration because the U-Hauls are going from California to plenty of other states as well – like Oregon, Michigan, Arizona, & Idaho.
The Orange County Register reported that in 2016 (July to July), 142,932 more residents exited California to live in other states than arrived from other states. This domestic net outmigration was the second largest in the country behind New York & just ahead of Illinois & New Jersey – there is a clear pattern here of the type of states Americans are leaving for other states. But California's population increased by 240,177 (source – Census Bureau) in 2016 primarily through foreign immigration & a natural increase of 214,000 (i.e., more births than deaths - 1 birth every 8 seconds in the U.S. & 1 death every 11 seconds).
In short, in 2016 the number of people of higher education & means that left California was exceeded by the number of poorly educated low skilled people who entered California – hardly a winning combination for economic growth & prosperity that you would want to raise your family in.
Up until now career politicians like current Governor Jerry Brown & Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom, who is leading in the above graphic poll for governor, found nothing wrong with any of the above financial facts but the Trump tax cut bill added a new wrinkle – like how is the above level of financing going to continue in light of the the state & local tax (SALT) deduction restriction in the Tax Cuts & Jobs Act of 2017 that is likely to accelerate people of substance & means leaving this high tax & high cost state.
The Sacramento Bee reported that Californians will lose a collective $12 billion because of the caps on the SALT deduction with 43,000 people who make over $1 million per year paying three quarters ($9 billion) of that money. This comes to an average of over $209,000.
You can judge for yourself why Nancy Pelosi called the Trump tax cut bill the "worst bill in the history of Congress" by looking @ her Financial Disclosure Report of 2016 – Pelosi has assets that very well could generate $10 million of income per year thereby putting her well into the category of Californians with large federal income tax increases as described above. It is safe to say that Pelosi is more concerned about her own personal 2018 federal income tax liability than she is about the $2,000 worth of "crumbs", as she called them, that people in the middle class will receive in lower federal income taxes in 2018.
See graphic below for comparison of the share of federal personal income taxes that residents of the four largest states pay in 2017 & 2018.
By electing John Cox Governor of California this fall the people of the state have a real chance to turn around, both financially & culturally, the terrible manner, way, & mode of life described above - lousy conditions that no one in their right mind would want to live under where the state government fights the federal government using American citizens as disposable pawns @ every turn while favoring illegal aliens wherever they find them.
But it is not just California that is involved in the sanctuary state imbroglio – other states & their municipalities across the nation have been drawn in. For instance, on a positive note, Iowa passed legislation earlier this month that directed Iowa law enforcement agencies to fully comply with ICE detainers & banned sanctuary city policies in the state. But on a negative note, New Jersey's new governor Phil Murphy has signaled a desire for New Jersey to become a sanctuary state.
If you live in California, or have relatives or friends who live in California – & I know of several such subscribers to this blog, & have already talked to some – I urge you to alert California voters to consider John Cox's candidacy for governor & check out his website.
A movement has started & California has a top notch candidate for governor, as described above, to reverse the certain ruin that lies ahead, so Californians have a chance – I hope they make the most of it.
Excellent article.
ReplyDeleteWhat an eye-opener! California is killing itself. I don’t understand how they can be in favor of this illegal immigration but the New Jersey elected Murphy who also wants us to be a sanctuary state. God help our country!
ReplyDeleteI have heard commentators say that the people in California do not support the immigration policies that Sacramento endorses. The election for governor will tell us if these commentators are right. It seems to me that the majority of the California electorate DO want illegal immigrants with all the rights that US citizens have. After all, the liberals have had majorities in the federal and state houses for quite a while. However it is encouraging to hear that 19 towns have renounced Gov. Brown's defiance of Federal immigration laws.
ReplyDeleteHey Doug
ReplyDeleteGreat analogy equating once great Babylon with once great entrepreneurial California.
Yes - I totally agree that private sector success must be a core requirement for governor in any state. This is per out of control public finance rampant at all levels of Government that must be immediately rectified. Cox has exceptional qualifications as finance savvy entrepreneur with 100 employees and as a CPA. We need many more CPA’s in Government.
As CPA he can convincingly prove how California immigration is economically destroying the state and how he would reverse this and start growing its economy again, lure back brightest minds that have left California. Thus should be a core aspect of his campaign.
In Sum, Cox must clearly Explain how high taxes and immigration are driving tax base out in a non ending spiral. A theme of his Effective campaign - time to reverse or follow plight to oblivion like Babylon. Tie the latter to his opponent.